Video gaming machines are well known in the art and can be found in casinos and other gambling houses throughout North America. Unlike conventional gaming machines which are mechanical in nature and pay out in negotiable currency in the event of a displayed winning combination of game elements, video gaming machines are microprocessor-based and pay out either in the form of credits accumulated in the machine or in negotiable currency, in the event of a winning combination of game elements. Credits accumulated in the machine can be redeemed by a player for negotiable currency.
One common type of video gaming machine is in the form of a video slot machine. Similar to the well known mechanical versions, a video slot machine has a display screen on which a simulation of the three spinning wheels of the slot machine is presented. Each simulated wheel is divided into a number of cells with each cell having a game element such as a "cherry", an "orange", a "bar", etc. in it. Different cells of a simulated wheel may have the same element therein and this determines the probability of a particular game element appearing on the display screen after the wheels have been "spun". Stored in the video slot machine are pay-out tables which assign a pay-out value to predetermined combinations of game elements considered to be winning combinations of game elements that may appear on the screen during a game play. When one or more of these pre-determined combinations of winning game elements stored in the pay-out tables appears on the screen during a game play, the video slot machine multiplies the pay-out value associated with that combination of game elements by the amount bet to determine the number of credits won by the player.
In order to make the video slot machine more exciting to play, the number of pay-out tables and the number of pre-determined combinations of game elements in the pay-out tables (or in other words, the number of ways a player can win) are increased. However, when this is done, the profitability of the video slot machine decreases due to an increase in the expected return of the video slot machine. The expected return of the video slot machine is determined by multiplying the pay-out value assigned to each pre-determined combination of game elements stored in the pay-out tables by the probability of that combination of game elements occurring and then adding each of the calculated products.
For a video slot machine owner to make money, the expected return of the video slot machine should be less than one. In other words, the video slot machine must pay out less money than it takes in. This is easily achieved by maintaining the number of pre-determined winning combinations of game elements stored in the pay-out tables and the pay-out values associated with these combinations of game elements low. However, when this is done, the video slot machine loses its appeal to players since it reduces the occurrence of a player winning during game play. This of course reduces significantly the profitability of the video machine especially if it is rarely used by players. Therefore, in order to maintain the interest of a player for extended periods of time, the video slot machine must have a significant expected return and must present winning combinations of game elements during game play fairly often.
In an attempt to achieve the above, it is current practice to increase the number of pre-determined winning combinations of game elements stored in the pay-out tables and the pay-out values associated with them to the point where the expected return of the video slot machine far exceeds one. To ensure that the actual pay out of the video slot machine is less than one, the machine is "fixed" using a governor. The governor ensures that the selection of game elements displayed on the screen after a "spin" is not always random. In particular, after a certain number of pay outs have occurred, the selection of game elements displayed on the screen is pre-determined by the governor for a fixed number of following "spins" and is such so that no winning combinations of game elements will be displayed during these following "spins".
Although this results in a video slot machine that pays out less than it takes in, even though the expected return of the machine is greater than one, machines of this type cannot be used in "legal" gambling houses that are government sanctioned. Also, the operation of the governor, which ensures that a fixed number of "spins" will result in no winning combinations of game elements, detracts significantly from the video slot machine's appeal to a player. This is a serious drawback as the more appeal a video slot machine has to a player, the more he/she will play it and therefore, the more money the machine will generate for the video slot machine owner. Heretofore, a video slot machine which did not suffer from the above-identified drawbacks and which complied with regulatory requirements was not available.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel video gaming machine.